To gain by labor, service, or performance; grab; merit or need as settlement or reward for solution, or as one's genuine or evident desert; gain a right to or perhaps the control of: as, to earn a dollar a-day; to make a fortune in trade; to earn the standing of being stingy.

In base-ball, to achieve or secure by batting or base-running, rather than by the errors or bad play of opponents: as, one part scored 5, but had won only 3 works.